2017 Under the Radar: TradeLanes eyes Midwestern Ag as future clients
August 29, 2017 | Meghan LeVota
Editor’s note: Startland News picked 10 early-stage firms to spotlight for its annual Under the Radar startups list. The following is one of 2017’s companies. To view the full list, click here.
[divide]
A recent graduate of the 2017 Sprint Accelerator program, TradeLanes is a newbie in Kansas City and showing significant movement.
The TradeLanes platform automates global trade focused on agriculture firms, lowering costs and removing days from the supply chain. To date, more than 90,000 cargo units have been shipped using the platform, said co-founder Vijay Harrell.
Digitizing documents, tracking shipments, notifying shippers of supply status, online bookings and detailed reports, the TradeLanes platform aims to make trade more efficient, Harrell said.
Thanks to its participation in the Sprint Accelerator, Trade Lanes (formerly of Miami, Florida) developed a beneficial working relationship with Kansas City-based Dairy Farmers of America. Harrell said the firm hopes to continue a partnership with the Ag giant, as well as other Kansas City area corporations.
The Sprint Accelerator is the third accelerator program for TradeLanes, since the firm launched in 2015. It also participated in the FedEx Logistics Accelerator and Venture Hive Miami.
Following the Sprint Accelerator program, Harrell has made a Kansas City hire and plans to open an office in the Crossroads this fall. Harrell believes that Kansas City is the best place for the firm to do business thanks to its central location and abundance of potential corporate partners
TradeLanes is in the middle of raising a seed round, which has yet to be announced publicly. Harrell is excited to focus on snagging as many Kansas City-area customers as possible, he said.
Featured Business
2017 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
O’Neill-Rauber: How my business failure begot confidence
I recently closed a business. Walking away, I feel a little lighter, a bit nostalgic, more confident and a lot smarter. My business was an online clothing store called TallChicksRule.com. Great name, right? If you know a female taller than 5’9”, you likely know the plight of tall fashionistas. I’m here to assure you: The struggle is real.…
Events Preview: Global Entrepreneurship Week Continues
There are a boatload of entrepreneurial events hosted in Kansas City on a weekly basis. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, investor, supporter or curious Kansas Citian, we’d recommend these upcoming events for you. WEEKLY EVENT PREVIEW GEW is packed full of events for entrepreneurs of every stripe. We’ve hand-selected the events geared towards tech, early-stage businesses, education and…
The ‘world’s biggest coworking studio’ is coming to Kansas City
Hoping to capitalize on a homegrown, entrepreneurial Renaissance, the new Westport Commons project will soon house what’s being billed as the largest coworking studio on earth. Kansas City Sustainable Development Partners has partnered with Lenexa-based coworking studio Plexpod to redevelop the 160,000 square-foot Westport Middle School into a coworking space. The school — located on the…
Blooom wins Kauffman Foundation pitch bout, $10K
Can anything stop Blooom? Continuing its streak of wins and successes, the financial tech firm on Wednesday morning won a national pitch contest at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Leawood-based Blooom beat out four other finalists in the inaugural One in a Million pitch contest, which initially drew more than 350 applicants. Blooom survived several…